A man shot by police at a Bartow County truck stop Thursday night was threatening to harm himself before officers arrived, according to the GBI.
Rafael Caballero, 51, was hit when Emerson police officers and Bartow County sheriff’s deputies fired multiple rounds. He was armed with a handgun and pointed it at the officers, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.
“Officers gave verbal commands for Caballero to drop his weapon, which he did not,” she said.
The shooting occurred just after 6 p.m. at a Love’s truck stop on Old Allatoona Road off I-75 in Emerson.
Two Emerson police officers, Sgt. Neil Baker and patrolman Gary Mandelus, and a Bartow deputy, George Murchison, were involved in the incident, Miles said. None of the officers were injured.
Caballero was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where authorities said he was in critical but stable condition Thursday.
Jeff Stubbs said in an interview with Channel 2 Action News that he called police after Caballero, his brother-in-law, made violent threats. Officers tracked him to the truck stop after he left his house, the news station reported.
“They did what they had to do,” Stubbs said. “He wanted to hurt his wife... and I think they tried to keep from shooting him.”
According to Channel 2, witnesses heard more than a dozen gunshots fired at the truck stop, sending people running for cover.
The Bartow County incident is the 60th officer-involved shooting the GBI has investigated this year and the second such investigation opened this week.
On Wednesday, two armed shoplifting suspects were apprehended in Dalton following a chase through Tennessee and North Georgia, and one of them was shot by multiple officers.
RELATED: Tenn. police chase ends in gunfire in Georgia
A woman, who has not been identified, was shot when she exited her vehicle with two handguns pointed at officers, according to the GBI. The driver of the vehicle, Parrish Smaey, 56, of Jonesboro, surrendered and was arrested.
Officer-involved shootings in Georgia this year are on track to pass the 88 recorded in 2017, according to the GBI.
RELATED: Georgia on pace to double deadly officer-involved shootings in 2018
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